diff --git a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/InferenceProcessor.java b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/InferenceProcessor.java
index 75384479f..3fb45ceeb 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/InferenceProcessor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/InferenceProcessor.java
@@ -153,9 +153,8 @@ public void execute(IngestDocument ingestDocument, BiConsumer<IngestDocument, Ex
 
     @VisibleForTesting
     void preprocessIngestDocument(IngestDocument ingestDocument) {
-        if (ingestDocument == null) return;
+        if (ingestDocument == null || ingestDocument.getSourceAndMetadata() == null) return;
         Map<String, Object> sourceAndMetadataMap = ingestDocument.getSourceAndMetadata();
-        if (sourceAndMetadataMap == null) return;
         Map<String, Object> unflattened = ProcessorDocumentUtils.unflattenJson(sourceAndMetadataMap);
         unflattened.forEach(ingestDocument::setFieldValue);
         sourceAndMetadataMap.keySet().removeIf(key -> key.contains("."));